Why Do Makers Make? Examining Designer Motivations on Thingiverse.com

Technological advancements have made a once fictitious dream into a reality. 3D printing has become a popular manufacturing and design technique used all over the world. As this industry becomes more popular, users of these 3D printers are reaching out across the web to share designs, seek help, and build communities of users with similar interests. This study is meant to look at what motivates 3D printing users to participate in online user innovation communities such as Thingiverse.com. This study will explore motivations such as personal needs, financial gains, approval of peers, skill development, and enjoyment. Moreover, it will assess the impact of each of these motivations on the number of designs created by designers within the observation period (May 2017-May 2018) and on the market response to these designs. To study these elements, we first perused research done in previous studies on motivations in brand communities, transactional communities, and user innovation communities to create a literature review. Following the literature review, a survey was created which asked Thingiverse makers 5 sets of questions related to their specific motivations for creating and sharing designs and asked them to provide demographic data as well. The results obtained from this research indicate that the motivation to satisfy a personal need has a marginally significant, negative impact on the number of designs created by a maker while the desire to gain approval from others in the community has a significant, positive effect on market response to those designs. Additionally, it was found that a desire for financial gain has little to no effect on the number of designs created or on the market response, a result which was surprising considering that 25% of the respondents reported earning money from 3D printing. These results and their implications as well as future research directions are outlined in the concluding discussion section

Mashing up Visual Languages and Web Mash-ups

Research on web mashups and visual languages share an interest in human-centered computing. Both research communities are concerned with supporting programming by everyday, technically inexpert users. Visual programming environments have been a focus for both communities, and we believe that there is much to be gained by further discussion between these research communities. In this paper we explore some connections between web mashups and visual languages, and try to identify what each might be able to learn from the other. Our goal is to establish a framework for a dialog between the communities, and to promote the exchange of ideas and our respective understandings of humancentered computing.published or submitted for publicationis peer reviewe

A qualitative enquiry into OpenStreetMap making

Based on a case study on the OpenStreetMap community, this paper provides a contextual and embodied understanding of the user-led, user-participatory and user-generated produsage phenomenon. It employs Grounded Theory, Social Worlds Theory, and qualitative methods to illuminate and explores the produsage processes of OpenStreetMap making, and how knowledge artefacts such as maps can be collectively and collaboratively produced by a community of people, who are situated in different places around the world but engaged with the same repertoire of mapping practices. The empirical data illustrate that OpenStreetMap itself acts as a boundary object that enables actors from different social worlds to co-produce the Map through interacting with each other and negotiating the meanings of mapping, the mapping data and the Map itself. The discourses also show that unlike traditional maps that black-box cartographic knowledge and offer a single dominant perspective of cities or places, OpenStreetMap is an embodied epistemic object that embraces different world views. The paper also explores how contributors build their identities as an OpenStreetMaper alongside some other identities they have. Understanding the identity-building process helps to understand mapping as an embodied activity with emotional, cognitive and social repertoires

Massive Open Online Courses as affinity spaces for connected learning: Exploring effective learning interactions in one massive online community

This paper describes a participatory online culture – Connected Learning Massive Open Online Collaboration (CLMOOC) – and asks how its ethos of reciprocity and creative playfulness occurs. By analysing Twitter interactions over a four-week period, we conclude that this is due to the supportive nature of participants, who describe themselves as belonging to, or connected with, the community. We suggest that Gee’s concept of an affinity space is an appropriate model for CLMOOC and ask how this might be replicated in a higher education setting

Detect, Bite, Slam

This paper explores the influences, ideas and motivations behind my MFA thesis exhibition. It primarily focuses on how I developed my work for the show in connection to my previous work as well as work created by other artists who explored the impacts of new media in the last decade. With the advancement of social media, digital technologies no longer have their infamous coldness. Our perceptions and the metaphors in language are all reflected onto the machines we create while in return they also shape and redefine our lives. It becomes increasingly difficult to talk about dialectics such as machine-human, virtual-real, and nature-culture. With the aid of some humor, I attempted to reflect on the marriage of these old oppositions and this paper will discuss the foundations of these ideas as well as my practice in general

'Mah LOLthesis let me show u it': The (re)making and circulation of participatory culture: memes, creativity and networks

Internet memes have become ubiquitous in our everyday experiences, both online and offline, permeating a variety of fields; not only are they prevalent in our communications among friends and strangers, they are also present in our political, commercial and cultural experiences. Memes are collective exercises in meaning making and creativity made both inter-personally and globally through sharing, which is built into the craft-like ethos of internet philosophy. Alternative 20th century strategies (e.g. collage, détournement, culture jamming) underlie much of current online interaction, embodying collaborative cultural practices - currently enabled by the accessibility to remix technology - that echo previous movements (e.g. punk, craft, Situationists International). Online memes are the intersection between participatory culture, remixing and intercreativity. Whilst literacy of formal aspects might lead to exclusivity, the low level of literacy required to engage with memes makes global access possible. However, this democratic potential might be threatened by the recuperation process that inhibits memes’ ability to perform counter-cultural roles, as wide circulation of memes has led to re-appropriations by politicians and commercial advertising. This thesis maps out meme use in a multitude of arenas including: politics (online debate and in protests), commerce (merchandise, use in advertising), and other cultural spaces (from LOLcat art to Lolita subculture). Additionally it follows the unfolding of the Doge meme closely across these spheres, providing insight into phenomena such as Dogecoin tipping and mass charitable actions performed under this meme. Ultimately, memes are successfully used across various groups and types of relationships (although at times met with some resistance), as their elasticity is able to accommodate the incarnations that place value upon spreadable meaning on a global scale

Between compliance and resistance : exploring discourses on family planning in Community Health Committees in Mozambique

Objectives: Although the Mozambican government has implemented a community-based approach to family planning (FP), little is known about the appropriateness of this process. We explore how members of Community Health Committees (CHCs) address and act regarding FP. Methods/settings: An in-depth qualitative study of CHCs was conducted at two sites in Maputo province -Ndlavela and Boane-using focus group discussions (n=6), informal conversations (n=4) and observation. The analysis followed a phenomenological approach. Results: CHCs in Ndlavela appeared to transfer more of the expected information than those in Boane. However, in the CHCs at both study sites, we found heterogeneity in CHCs' perspectives leading to conflicting views among committee members (CMs). Arising issues included contraceptive type, target groups, the desirable number of children per family as well as the way FP was to be represented. Moreover, weak communication between CMs and health workers, and lack of payment for CMs' activities influenced promotion of FP. Conclusions: The two CHCs framed FP in different ways leading to inconsistent participation of CHC members in promoting FP. Policymakers should consider the diversity of discourses and aspirations of these committees when delivering information to them

Our Space: Being a Responsible Citizen of the Digital World

Our Space is a set of curricular materials designed to encourage high school students to reflect on the ethical dimensions of their participation in new media environments. Through role-playing activities and reflective exercises, students are asked to consider the ethical responsibilities of other people, and whether and how they behave ethically themselves online. These issues are raised in relation to five core themes that are highly relevant online: identity, privacy, authorship and ownership, credibility, and participation.Our Space was co-developed by The Good Play Project and Project New Media Literacies (established at MIT and now housed at University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communications and Journalism). The Our Space collaboration grew out of a shared interest in fostering ethical thinking and conduct among young people when exercising new media skills